In the Last Week

In the last week:

• Last Friday, Levi was diagnosed with reflux and I limited my diet even more now, avoiding all forms of dairy, soy, egg (other than in baked goods), peanuts, tree nuts, tomatoes, and caffeine. Yes, it hurts my brain to figure out what I can eat.
• We spent two nights at my parents' lake house and hosted a party of 50 adults and children (happy 30th birthday, Brian!). One of the families got into a bad accident on the way home, totally wrecking both cars. Praise God everyone was OK! Brian spent the rest of Saturday night helping the family while a friend and I cleaned up the lake house.
• On our way home from the lake on Sunday, in a half hour time I went from feeling a little funny to INTENSE pain and heading into the emergency room. One hour later I was being taken by ambulance to another hospital and being scheduled for surgery.
• Tuesday, dazed and confused but feeling a bit better, I headed home from the hospital.
• Thursday, today, as Brian is driving into work, the transmission goes out on our car. Why not, right?

However, in the last week...

• We praised God for the little life of Levi and his blessing already in our family. I'm thankful for the opportunity to nurse him, regardless of the sacrifice.
• We were able to witness Levi smiling in response to our interaction with him for the first time.
• We had a wonderful time of fellowship with many dear friends from our church.
• We were able to witness firsthand God's protection as our friends and their three children were able to walk away from a deadly accident with just bumps and bruises.
• We were able once again to see God's protection and sovereignty that the kidney stone, which has been there for years apparently, did not become a problem during my pregnancy, the majority of my postpartum recovery, or while we were out of town.
• I was safely operated on and am recovering with minor difficulties.
• Brian was approached by a man in the hospital whose wife and the mother of his four children is dying of cancer about where he finds his source of hope- faith in Christ alone!
• We were able to see God's provision for us in a very tangible way in regards to our home and a wonderful refinancing solution for us.
• We were served immensly by friends and family with kid-sitting, meal providing, and prayers.
• We were reminded that our car is just a thing, money is just money, and God is the provider of it all. We will never have no more or no less than what God has for us and what can be more financially comforting than that?

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
(Romans 5:1-11 ESV)

Hot and Cold

It has been amazingly hot here, but this week we were able to cool off on Friday and Saturday at an FCA hockey camp. Jonah and Abby were even able to get in on the action this year too. A couple of FCA volunteers who help run the camp brought skates to fit both of the kids. Jonah was a little afraid of the ice, but Abby went ahead and jumped right in.

Jonah's hockey jersey was a bit big, so he opted to wear his football jersey instead and he also brought along his fisher price hockey stick. :)

Abby didn't mind the large jersey. Or the ice.

Abby in action...

On the hot side of things, while Brian was mowing the yard, Jonah decided to be like Grandpa. When we're at the lake my dad will rake the sand with a rake pulled behind a 4-wheeler. Jonah decided to help daddy by making his own rake to pull weeds in the yard. He tied a shovel to the back of his scooter and went to work. He cracks us up.

Kitchen Remodel: Complete!

Finally, pictures of the kitchen! We are so happy with how things turned out. We literally finished up with the remodeling about four days before Levi was born. Although it about twice the time and twice the money we anticipated, we believe it was a worthwhile investment and we have already greatly enjoyed it. The bat and paint spill also added some much needed (haha) drama to our life along the way. All that being said, we are not planning on another major remodeling project anytime soon. :) So, the completed project:

The view from our living room. I don't like paint cutoff by the pantry, but we have no idea where else to make the line. Oh well. Would it be noticable if I didn't point it out?

The view from near our fridge. Please note my kids are in most of these pictures. They like being in front of a lens. My brother did the backspalsh of marble subway tiles. We're so happy with it!
I got the stools off of craigslist, but Brian's not sold on them. :) He's not a fan of the swivel (more like the kids swiveling into the counter and wall non-stop). I was planning on painting them, but I think I will resell them and craigslist shop for some more.
I love my ovens!!!

And cooktop.

And my girl :)

The living room (take two). We had an incident where a touch up painter spilled a half gallon of paint all over our room. It ruined our couch and splattered some other items, but for the most part we were able to salvage everything. Including our beautiful new floor! Anyway, here is our new couch. I need a table cloth for the table on the left, but other than that the room is mostly complete.

I also want an ottoman for below the picture. Hello, Jonah. :)

A giant sized doorway. Not that we expect to have tall children or anything.

Now, on to Levi's room.... Poor Levi. Other than the chinese lanterns, he just got Jonah's room exactly as he left it with baby furniture put in it. Something tells me that he doesn't really care. :)

Jonah's new Husker room with SEVEN, I repeat, SEVEN coats of red paint. No, we did not prime the walls first, but they were a orangish yellow. We thought we'd be OK. We learned our lesson.

Brian's hardwork and paint was worth it though. Jonah absolutely loves his room.

And for good measure, Abby's room. We painted all of this furniture that we got off of craigslist. I'd rather do seven coats of red paint. We won't be painting six pieces of furniture again anytime soon.... :)

So, that's the latest changes in our house. I know I left Levi out of this post, but to be honest, there aren't any new pictures of the little guy as of late. He's in the baby acne stage, so until that passes there aren't going to be too many frame-worthy pictures. :) Plenty of updates to him coming in the future. Other than that, we're surviving with three and if I wasn't amazingly tired, I'd say we were doing great. Can someone remind me what three hours of consecutive sleep feels like? I vaguely remember it feeling wonderful... :)

Introducing Levi James Conklin

Born 7.14.10 at 4:16pm

7 lbs. 5 oz. 20 in.

For those who are interested (men need not apply), the birth story:

Brian and I made the difficult decision to be induced a bit early. Many of you probably know, but Jonah was 12 days overdue, my water broke, and I still didn't go into labor. He was also 9 lbs. 2 oz. and did a number on me during his delivery. Jonah himself also had some difficulties and needed physical therapy for a few months after birth due to his size. Our very conservative Dr. in Lincoln advised us to induce early with Abby in order to avoid the same delivery scenario occurring, which could possibly cause surgery for me in the future if I had the same difficulty. Abby was induced 4 days early, was 7 lbs. 7 oz., and it was a very easy labor and delivery for both Abby and I. Since this was our first baby in Omaha and we have a new Dr., the decision was really up to us and we decided to stick with our Dr. in Lincoln's advice and induce early to avoid any major complications again. Our Dr. here has no problem inducing at 39 weeks, so at 39 weeks and 1 day we scheduled our induction.

Labor itself was smooth. We got to the hospital at 7 am, I was started on pitocin, and my Dr. came around 8:30 am or so and broke my water. By 10:00 am I was in active labor with contractions 2-3 minutes apart. I was progressing well, got an epidural around noon or so (could there be a more wonderful product of modern medicine??) and at 3:50 pm I was 8 cm dialated. Two contractions later (while both nurse and husband were out of the room!) I could feel I was ready to push. The nurse checked me, and sure enough I was. About 5 minutes later my Dr. was in the room and I all set to push.

Abby was born in two pushes, so I joked that I could have this baby in one push. Not exactly. I had three pushes through the first contraction (pushing MUCH harder than I had to with Abby) and the Dr. could start to see his head. I asked what color his hair was and she said there was not much hair to speak of, but she thought dark. The next contraction I pushed three more times and the Dr. started saying "turn, turn, turn!" (I didn't know why at the time) and she was unsuccessfully trying to turn Levi over as he was face up, instead of face down as babies should be by the time of pushing. On the last contraction I did three more pushes and, with some assistance from my Dr., Levi was born. This is when my Dr. informed me that he had actually come out not only sunny side up, but also with his head tilted up instead of against his chin as babies usually do. When she said she saw no hair, what she was actually looking at was his forehead. She said he basically came out nose first. What a stinker! The nurse and Dr. said that if this was not my third baby and I didn't know how to push, there is now way he would have been born without a c-section. Thank goodness for his "big" big brother who went before him! Other than needing a little help to get the first cry out of him, Levi was born as healthy as can be, albeit with some bruising on the forehead, cheek, and a swollen nose.

On the flip side (boys, plug your ears), I did have similar difficulties to what I had giving birth to Jonah and my recovery has been slow. I lost a significant amount of blood once again and instead of a transfusion, the Dr.'s have decided to see if I can build my iron back up with pills and rest. One week later I still am unable to grocery shop or really do anything too physical for more than 20 minutes or so without being exhausted and even feeling like I need to pass out. Thankfully, we've had some help around here with Brian's parents staying here for the first week, meals from church friends, and Brian able to stay home and help us get into some kind of routine before I go solo on Monday. :)

Levi is a total joy and we are absolutely in love with him. There's nothing like cuddling with a newborn. He is nursing like a champ, sleeping better every night (praise God!!) and becoming more alert every day. Jonah and Abby absolutely love him and are eager to help and cheer him up when he cries. It is such a blessing to see them interact and love on each other. Now, for pictures....

Checking into the hospital. This hospital is actually new and has only been open for about 3 weeks. The nurse had some trouble finding some needed items after Levi's delivery as they are still getting settled, but the food was delicious. :)

Just born. He had a super long piece of umbilical cord as the Dr. was trying to rush to get to me after his delivery and clamped it a bit far out. She also didn't "milk" the cord, so when Brian cut it, blood squirted all over his face, shirt, shorts, and even shoes. :) It was actually pretty funny. Thankfully he had a new shirt to change into before he went out to tell the eager grandparents about the delivery... I think my mom would have passed out.
So happy to finally be able to hold him in my arms.
The grandparents' first time to hold him.
The kids being introduced to Levi for the first time.
Levi gave the kids each a gift. Abby was very excited to get her baby doll from him.
Moving up to post-partum. Shortly after this point, the tornado sirens started going off... We actually had a bit of chaos once we got up there. My epidural hadn't worn off, so we (me on my bed, Levi, Jonah, Abby, Brian, and his parents) were wheeled into the nursery area to wait out the major windstorm. About a half hour later we were finally able to settle in our room.
Jonah holding Levi for the first time. He had been so excited my whole pregnancy for this moment. :)

Abby's turn.

After the kids and everyone left, we saw this huge double rainbow out our window and it almost looked as if it was coming from our house. It was an awesome reminder of God's promises and protection of us. We also saw some great sunrises out this window.

Proud daddy.

We didn't get pictures of all of our visitors, but here's Aunt Dana holding Levi for the first time.

Cousin Emma, future babysitter in the making.

Cousins Elise and Ethan.

Molly and Dustin, minus their new baby Claire. Molly actually watched Jonah and Abby so Papa and Mimi could be at the hospital during Levi's delivery... thanks Molly!

Heading home.

The first bath at home. Jonah had a hard time watching Levi cry and spent the whole time trying to console him. It was very sweet.

Much better.

Papa and Mimi asked Jonah what he wanted on Levi's birthday cake and Jonah chose "Levi, we're glad you're here". We are!

A fifth grandson for Papa and Mimi. Thanks for all of your help while you were here!!

Another close up.

Levi is now eight days old and it is so hot we've been doing a lot of playing with water outside. Today, Levi and I sat outside to join in the fun. He wasn't so sure at first.

Jonah and Abby were very sure, however. They love the sprinklers!

Levi still unsure why we're out there.

Warming up to the idea.

Abby and I now have to really stick together, being outnumbered by boys and all.

The rule was no shooting mommy and Levi. Nice try Abby.

Get daddy instead.

Daddy attempting to run for cover.

A few more of the little guy. He eventually loved being outside.

Love those baby legs!

We are so excited to welcome this guy into our family and have him home. I keep telling Brian that I love the feeling of having three children, no matter how tiring and challenging it may be. He has already been a blessing to us and I can't wait to see him grow and have another little individual running around here! OK, I can wait for the running to begin for a while... :)